Comic books are many things — full of stories, illustrations and life lessons.
Something they're usually not focused on is tamales or Chicano culture, but that's about to change.
“It's kind of like your grandmother's favorite novela mixed with a little bit of La Bamba in there, with some horror flicks,” said co-creator Vince Vargas.
"Tamale Guy" is a new comic book, locally written and illustrated by co-creators Ish Galvan and Vargas.
“It's a story about a Mexican street vendor that sells tamales and has an evil twin brother that works for the cartel. He also has a love interest,” Vargas said.
The co-founders of Triple OG Comics are launching the first installation of “Tamale Guy” this weekend during the first Chicano Arts Festival in Vista.
Galvan said the festival ties together perfectly with what they created.
“A lot of stories come from our family. It's stories that we heard growing up from our tíos and our tías,” Galvan said. “So when you read it you feel like you're with your cousins, like you're with your uncles.”
Natalie Vega is in charge of the art festival and said it's going to be everything Chicano in one place.
That includes food and craft vendors, interactive art, plus a lot more.
“We got hip-hop and cumbia bands, then next to it were going to have all the lowriders parked,” Vega said. “Then we're going to have live art down toward the end of the street. We're going to have vendors filling this street up.”
She said the festival has been years in the making, and it's bigger than just the comic — it's about pride for the community.
Vega’s expecting a big turnout.
“The 'Tamale Guy' comic was kind of the push I needed to kind of get my vision for Chicano and Latin (people) to be represented here in Vista. I feel like they’re always forgotten,” Vega said.
The "Tamale Guy" origin story has humble and local roots in the classroom.
“We basically co-founded a comic book class,” Vargas said. “For three years now it's been running where the kids can come in, learn about comics, they get lectures, they get a chance to do comics with professional grade paper.”
Both Galvan and Vargas teach the art of comics to elementary and middle school students in Vista Unified School District, before and after school.
“Some people think that maybe teaching figure drawing to elementary school kids is a little advanced,” Galvan said, “but I've seen great results.”
Galvan’s background as a writer and illustrator and Vargas' work as spray can muralist came together to create "Tamale Guy."
They said the comic portrays the authentic beauty and pain of modern Mexican and Chicano identity, while diving into indigenous history.
“In Mexican music we have corridos, which are basically outlaw ballads and stuff like that. And this is our ballad of the tamalero — instead of a gun slinger he's a tamale slinger,” Galvan said.
The co-creators said this is the first installment of "Tamale Guy," with other issues planned for the future. A Spanish language version could even be on the way.
While this particular comic isn't geared toward children, they hope the pages they wrote, inked and colored inspires a younger generation.
“I always tell the kids when they say, ‘I'm not good at art’ – I go ‘comics is not really about art. It's about the story.’ You have a great story, you're going to have a great comic,” Galvan said.
The Chicano Art Festival and comic book launch is taking place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, along South Citrus Avenue in Vista.
It's free for the public — and there will be both fictional and real life tamaleros at the festival.
